Burlington – Rouses Point railway line

Burlington VT– Rouses Point NY, as of 2010
Route length:	65.7 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Bellows Falls and Cambridge Junction 0.0 Burlington VT Union Station to Windsor 5.5 Rigid Farm Beach VT Winooski River 10.5 Colchester Point VT Lake Champlain (dam and 2 bridges) 21.6 South Hero VT 28.2 Grand Isle VT Lake Champlain (dam with bridge) 35.7 Abnaki VT 40.1 North Hero VT Lake Champlain (dam and 2 bridges) 49.6 Isle La Motte VT 59.9 Alburgh VT Ogdensburg – Maquam line Essex Junction – Rouses Point route to Noyan Junction Ogdensburg – Maquam line from Essex Junction (Beginning of the track loop ) Lake Champlain ( Vermont / New York ) to Rouses Point (End of the track loop) Connection to St. Lambert by Maquam 65.7 Rouses Point NY after Troy and St. Lambert to Ogdensburg

The Burlington – Rouses Point railway line is a railway line in Vermont and New York ( United States ). It is 65.7 kilometers long and connects the cities of Burlington , Alburgh and Rouses Point , among others . The route is closed.

history

Two railway companies had built railroad lines to Burlington in 1849, namely the later Rutland Railroad via Rutland and the later Central Vermont Railway (CV) via Montpelier . The Vermont and Canada Railroad , which was originally supposed to connect both lines to the Canadian railroad network, was bought by the CV and only their line was connected. Rutland nevertheless wanted this connection to the north and initially bought the Leicester – Ticonderoga railway line . In Ticonderoga there was a connection to the main line of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad to Canada. However, this was unsatisfactory as no direct trains could be run from Burlington towards Canada. So she founded the Rutland and Canadian Railroad on November 4, 1898 to build her own railway line from Burlington to the north.

Since a route directly parallel to the CV route Essex Junction-Rouses Point was out of the question due to the development and they wanted to build a shorter route, the Rutland decided to build a route over the islands in Lake Champlain and the islands interrupted by bridges Connecting dams. The dams were built from rubble stones that were continually produced as waste in the state's many quarries. On January 7, 1901, the new line went into operation. Despite the hostility, the CV bridge was used between Alburgh and Rouses Point, but the bridge was rebuilt in 1900 at joint expense and a track loop was installed to save shared use fees.

Operations on the route were run by Rutland, which Rutland & Canadian had dissolved when the route opened. Due to a strike on June 26, 1953, passenger traffic in the entire Rutland network was stopped. Freight traffic started up again after the strike, but was also finally stopped on the occasion of another strike on September 25, 1961. The Rutland applied for the closure of the line, which was approved on September 18, 1962 and completed on May 20, 1963. Some parts of the route, including the dam between Colchester Point and South Hero, have been converted into a cycling and walking path. Shorter sections were used to build roads.

Route description

The line begins in Burlington Union Station and branches off from the line to Windsor . It runs north along the east coast of Lake Champlain. It crosses the Winooski River directly at its confluence with the lake. Near the headland of Colchester Point, the dam begins across the lake to South Hero . The five-kilometer-long structure is interrupted in two places by bridges. The more northerly of the two bridges is designed as a bascule bridge to allow unhindered shipping.

The route leads over the Grand Isle and through the town of the same name. At the north end of the island there is another dam. It leads to a narrow headland on the island of North Hero , on which the place of the same name is located. A stretch of road on this island has been converted into a road. The route leaves the island on a third causeway. You will then arrive at Isle La Motte train station . However, the station is on the mainland. The island after which the station is named is a few kilometers to the west. The railway line now runs further north and reaches Alburgh, the only major city along the route. The Ogdensburg – Maquam railway line, which was shut down in this area before the line opened, crosses the line twice here. The CV route also crossed here, and a route branches off to Canada. The once important rail junction Alburgh can now only be reached by road. The railway lies in the further course directly next to the CV line and had a track loop with this on the bridge over the lake. The Rouses Point junction is connected to the bridge, where the main New York – Montréal line crosses.

Sources and further information

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 2010.

literature

• Robert C. Jones: Railroads of Vermont, Volume II. New England Press Inc., Shelburne, VT 1993. ISBN 978-1881535027 .
• Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .
• Jim Shaughnessy: The Rutland Road. (2nd edition) Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY 1997, ISBN 0-8156-0469-6 .